Complete USA Men’s & Women’s Roster For Beijing

INDIANAPOLIS
– An experienced American team featuring 15 Olympic medalists, 31 World
Outdoor Championships medalists and 10 individual outdoor American
record holders will represent the United States in track & field
competition at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

USA
Track & Field and the U.S. Olympic Committee on Monday announced a
126-athlete track & field squad that will be led by multi-time
medalists Allyson Felix, Lauryn Williams, Sanya Richards, Bernard
Lagat, Tyson Gay, Adam Nelson, Bryan Clay and Jeremy Wariner.

Defending
individual Olympic medalists include 2004 gold medalists Shawn Crawford
(M200) and Jeremy Wariner (M400) and silver medalists Lauryn Williams
(W100), Allyson Felix (W200m), Bryan Clay (MDecathlon), Adam Nelson
(MSP), Terrence Trammell (M110mH) and Bernard Lagat (M1,500 while
competing for Kenya). Team USA won a total of 25 medals, eight of them
gold, at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. It was the highest U.S.
medal tally at an Olympics since the 1992 Games in Barcelona.

Team
USA is coming off an incredibly successful showing at the 2007 World
Outdoor Championships in Osaka, Japan, as well, where they won 26
medals, 14 of them gold. That showing tied the World Championships
record for gold medals – Team USA also won 14 in 2005, in Helsinki –
and tied the Team USA record for medal count at a World Outdoors.

“This
Olympic Team is one of our strongest ever, with more medal-winning
experience in a wider range of events, from sprints to distances and
field events, than we’ve had in many decades,” said USATF
President/Acting CEO Bill Roe. “While it would take an incredible
performance to match our medal counts of recent championships, we
certainly feel that this team has what it takes to again top the medal
tables.”

Of the 10 American record holders on the
roster, seven have set their ARs in 2007 or 2008, including Tyson Gay,
Shalane Flanagan, Kim Kreiner, Breaux Greer, Jenn Stuczynski, Brad
Walker and Suzy Powell-Roos.

The Team USA coaching
staffs will be led by head coaches Jeanette Bolden (women) and Bubba
Thornton (men); head managers are Rich Torrellas (women) and James Li
(men).

*
USATF rules enable the track & field chair to allow the selection
of an injured athlete who competed in the Olympic Trials but did not
final, and who has reached the A standard, as long as another athlete
is not displaced from the team.

–
Amy Acuff is the most experienced Olympian on the roster, this being
her fourth Olympic Team. Adam Nelson is the most experienced male
Olympian for team USA. The two-time medalist has made his third Olympic
Team. Bernard Lagat is a three-time Olympian but this is his first time
representing the U.S.

– Angelo Taylor won the
first World Championships medal on the current roster, winning gold in
1999 in the 4x400m relay. He won gold in the 4×400 and bronze in the
400 eight years later, in Osaka.

–
Nelson has won a medal at every Olympic Games and World Outdoor
Championships since 2000. (Silver in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics; gold
at 2005 Worlds and silver in ’01, ’03 and ’07)

–
At age 40, Jeff Hartwig qualified for his second Olympic Team and first
Olympic roster in 12 years. He was second at the 1996 Olympic Trials
and 11th at the Games in Atlanta but no-heighted at the Trials in 2000
and 2004. Hartwig will be 41 in September and is the oldest member of
the men’s team.

– At age 44, Joanne Dow is the oldest member of the team, male or female.

–
Women’s 400m hurdler Queen Harrison, 19, is the youngest member of the
team, while men’s 800m runner Andrew Wheating, 20, is the youngest male.